We dive into the world of crypto and digital currencies in this episode to take a close look at two countries approaching them in very different ways. In 2021, El Salvador made the cryptocurrency bitcoin legal tender, while Nigeria launched its own central bank digital currency. Experts talk us through why they've taken such radically different paths.

Featuring Iwa Salami, Reader (Associate Professor) in Law at the University of East London in the UK and Erica Pimentel, Assistant Professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada.

And if the latest Matrix film has left you wondering whether we are really living in a simulation, we talk to Benjamin Curtis, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics at the Nottingham Trent University in the UK, on the long history of that idea. (At 30m20)

Plus, Rob Reddick, COVID-19 editor at The Conversation in the UK, picks out some recent coverage of the wave of omicron cases sweeping the world. (At 42m10)

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here. And a transcript is available here.

Further reading:

• Nigeria’s digital currency: what the eNaira is for and why it’s not perfect, by Iwa Salami, University of East London
• After a big year for cryptocurrencies, what’s on the horizon in 2022?, by Erica Pimentel, Bertrand Malsch, and Nathaniel Loh, Queen's University, Ontario
• Free Guy’s philosophy: could we just be lines of code in a grand simulation, by Benjamin Curtis, Nottingham Trent University
• What are the symptoms of omicron?, by Tim Spector, King's College London
• Why does omicron appear to cause less severe disease than previous variants?, by Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia